Intelligence Shake-Up: Controversial Firing at the Pentagon

The head of the Pentagon's intelligence agency has been dismissed, a decision that the top Democratic member of the Senate Intelligence Committee criticized as another instance of politicizing intelligence under President Donald Trump's regime.

U.S. Senator Mark Warner, the Vice Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, emphasized that removing another senior national security official highlights the Trump administration's dangerous practice of treating intelligence loyalty as a test instead of a safeguard for the nation. Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse, the former Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, was unavailable for comment, and the Pentagon has not provided an official statement. The Washington Post initially reported the firing.

This move marks the latest effort by the Trump administration to target current and former military, intelligence, and law enforcement officials with views not aligned with Trump. Though specific reasons for Kruse's dismissal remain unclear, it followed a leaked preliminary DIA assessment that claimed the June 22 U.S. airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear sites delayed Tehran's program only by a few months, contradicting Trump's assertion of the targets being "obliterated." The leaked report, covered by Reuters, infuriated Trump, leading to the White House dismissing the assessment as "flat out wrong" and Trump condemning media outlets like CNN and the New York Times as "scum" and "FAKE NEWS."

(With inputs from agencies.)